Fuel Cell Bus Club

The Fuel Cell Bus Club comprises the participants of the projects CUTE, ECTOS and STEP ([1]). They currently operate the largest fleet of fuel cell buses in the world, 33 buses, as part of a two-year Mercedes-Benz Citaro hydrogen fuel cell bus trial with three buses in each city. The buses were estimated to cost US$1.2 million each and have a range of 300 km and carry around 70 passengers.

There are three buses each in 11 cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Perth, Porto, Reykjavik, Stockholm and Stuttgart.

Projects

Fuel Cell Bus Club

All information is shared between CUTE, ECTOS and STEP.

CUTE

CUTE stands for Clean Urban Transport for Europe. This European Union initiative is responsible for the fuel cell buses in 9 of the above-mentioned cities.

ECTOS

ECTOS stands for Ecological City Transport System. Icelandic New Energy is responsible for this project, the aim of which is to demonstrate "state-of-the-art" hydrogen technology by running part of the public transport system with fuel cell buses in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Hydrogen will be produced from domestic geothermal and hydro-powered energy sources by electrolysis.

STEP

STEP stands for Sustainable Transport Energy for Perth. This initiative of the Government of Western Australia's Department of Planning and Infrastructure (DPI), is being run by Path Transit, although Transperth is responsible for the fuel cell buses in Perth, Western Australia. These three buses are called "EcoBuses".

STEP is also sharing information with other fuel cell bus projects (see Fuel cell bus trial).

Three fuel cell buses began service in Perth on September 27, 2004.

BP provides the hydrogen from the Kwinana refinery (50km south of Perth), which is a by-product of the oil refining process. The hydrogen is then transported by road in specially-designed road tankers to a bus depot in the northern suburbs of Perth. Perth’s EcoBuses have achieved greater reliability and better fuel economy than in any other city in the worldwide trial.

By June 2005 the Perth buses had covered more than 60,000km and completed almost 3,000 operational hours, with almost 60,000 passengers having used the service.Template:Fn

• In 2004 the EcoBus project was achieved a Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Outstanding Achievement award.
• In 2005 it was presented with a Banksia award in the "Government Leading by Example for a Sustainable Future" category.

See this page for the timetables of hydrogen buses.

Partners

The buses were manufactured by DaimlerChrysler, the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and use fuel cell engines manufactured by XCELLSIS Fuel Cell Engines, now a division of Ballard Power Systems, developed as an alliance of Ballard, DaimlerChrysler, and Ford Motor Company. A number of the cities are receiving their hydrogen from BP. The trial is being independently evaluated, mostly by Murdoch University.

The Perth trial received 2.5 million dollars funding from the Department of the Environment and Heritage and the Australian Greenhouse Office.

The Perth trial has been endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

External links

• Official website of the Fuel Cell Bus Club - "the first fuel cell bus fleet"
• the official website of CUTE (appears to be the one above)
• Official website of Icelandic New Energy with information including details of ECTOS
• Official EcoBus website - section of the Department of Planning and Infrastructure's website with details of this trial
• Realtime updates of the positions of the STEP buses
• Template:Fnb WA Governement media statement